Leopard Seals Are Straight Out Of Your Nightmares

Deep in the icy waters of Antarctica hides a terrifying, prehistoric-looking predator waiting for its next taste of blood. It glides through the ocean with a long, powerful body that measures more than three meters. It sports an elegant coat with black and gray spots. It flaunts a large almost reptilian head this may be the last thing a penguin will see or the creature they never saw coming you can try to run away or swim but you can't hide this is the

leopard

seal hi I'm Danielle Dufoe and you Looking at animal logic, The

leopard

seal, also known as the hydrogalepton seal, lives a solitary life in some of the most remote and coldest places in the world.

Leopard

seals

are known for their love of penguins, but they find it difficult to share their love no matter what their interests are. you are the sponsor of today's episode Squarespace can help you create a website to showcase

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seals

and walruses are larger but leopard seals They are much more terrifying.

Adult male leopard seals can weigh up to 450 kilograms and adult females are even larger, about 600 kilograms, which is almost as heavy as a male Kodiak bear. They make their namesake look like small leopard seals; they eat a wide variety of foods using their huge, open mouths. Jaws to get the job done in the winter their most important food is krill because it is widely available them. They even have special grooved rear molars that come together and allow them to filter krill out of the water. They also eat fish and cephalopods such as squid. But like their feline namesakes, leopard seals are ferocious predators, reputed to be one of the deadliest predators in the ocean, and are the only type of seal that feeds on warm-blooded prey.

This prey includes penguins and even other seals to catch. Their prey, leopard seals, employ several different hunting tactics, one of which is the weight and rush tactic, catching their prey off guard, the leopard seal pounces, they can also approach an animal resting on the surface of the water and catch it with its jaws, as with other tactics. They are stalking where the leopard seal hides underwater with only its nostrils exposed, waits at the edge of a pool and then jumps out when the time is right and finally there is an open hunt where the leopard seal makes no attempt to hide an Once their prey is caught eating, it presents its own challenges: one, they cannot hold their prey with their fins and two, they do not have sharp teeth like lions to cut their prey into bite-sized pieces, instead From that, leopard seals must hit and shake their prey to break it down, they will quickly launch their catch in an arc above their heads, smashing it against the surface of the water until it breaks, a brutal tactic but a smart solution for the hungry seal.

Leopard seals are known to play with their food, but what is the game for? Leopard seal is life or death for its prey When a leopard seal has eaten but still wants to play, they may look for a penguin or seal pup heading to shore and chase them before they can get there, they can do this over and over. again until its prey manages to reach the coast or succumbs to exhaustion. These muscular predators are built for speed and have excellent eyesight and smell. Their streamlined shape and fins can help propel leopard seals through the water at speeds of up to 40 kilometers per hour, their longest dive on record.

It lasts about 15 minutes, but due to their feeding habits, they typically do not need to dive deeply, regardless of their enormous jaws. Leopard seals take small bites to consume their prey and savor every bite. The tips of a leopard seal's mouth are permanently curved upward, which is why they smile. or is it a menacing smile, it's like I can hear the leopard seal asking why she is so serious right now, you probably wouldn't be surprised to know that leopard seals don't play well with other leopard seals, they usually hunt alone and are never seen with more than one or two seals when hunting in the same area leopard seals are widely spaced on occasions when leopard seals come ashore they are extremely territorial if another leopard seal crosses their boundaries they let out a warning growl before defending their space with violence Because leopard seals lead such solitary lives in inhospitable places, it is difficult to determine the population size with any degree of precision, but the current estimate is between 220,000 and 440,000.

Leopard seals of both sexes They are very noisy during the mating season during song cycles. Solitary males alternate between periods of vocalization and silence. Vocalization occurs while the seals are underwater and consists of local calls and long-distance broadcast calls. They are known to have 12 unique vocalizations, all within the range of 65 to 4800 Hertz. There are also some regional variations or accents. In their calls, leopard seals mate between November and March with a gestation period of between eight and nine months. They often give birth in ice currents. It is not surprising that they are cold to the center.

The pups are born measuring around 1, 5 meters long and the pups weighing around 35 kilograms. Leopard seals feed mainly on krill. It is not until they become adult leopard seals that they develop a taste for blood and feed on penguins and seals. Leopard seals can live up to 26 years in the wild, that is, if they can avoid their only recognized predator, the Orca leopard seals are curious and brave and often approach small boats to observe humans, but how do they do this? What should humans feel like when encountering a leopard seal? In 2006, a photographer named Paul Nicklin dove into Antarctic waters to try to capture leopard seals in their natural habitat.

For several days, a female leopard seal brought Nicklin penguins. Which Nicklin thought was an attempt to feed him or teach him to feed himself, but it could have been a Hansel and Gretel situation, but the same protective nature hasn't always been present in other human leopards. Interactions with seals on his infamous expedition to Antarctica in the early 1900s aboard the Endurance Ernest Shackleton's group was attacked by a leopard seal. Fortunately, no one was hurt and after dealing with a predator they discovered that it had a belly full of undigested fish in 1985. Scottish explorer Gareth Wood. He was bitten twice on the leg when a leopard seal tried to drag him into the water and in 2003 a marine biologist working with the British Antarctic Service drowned after being dragged almost 60 meters underwater by a leopard seal.

These events are a sobering reminder that leopard seals and all wild creatures must be treated with the utmost caution and respect like other Antarctic species leopard seals are affected by climate change leopard seal distribution is significantly affected by the annual expansion and contraction of the herd eyes surrounding the Antarctic continent as ice flows melt leopard seals have less space to give birth to their pups and rest despite this environmental threat. Leopard seals are a resilient species, at least they face whatever the world throws at them with a smile on their face. I definitely call it a menacing smile, so what should we talk about next?

Let me know in the comments and be sure to subscribe to receive new episodes every week. See you later.